COLUMN | Effort to Modernize National Defense

El Mercurio de Valparaíso, Sunday, August 4, 2019

RICHARD KOUYOUMDJIAN

The government is engaged in a profound process of modernizing National Defense, and therefore the Armed Forces and what could be called the Defense ecosystem. For now, this process can be considered—perhaps—the most ambitious that a Chilean government has decided to undertake since the arrival at the end of the 19th century of the Prussian military mission that came to modernize the Army or the creation of the National Air Force in 1930 by merging the military and naval air services.

The 2010 modernization of Defense, as manifested in Law No. 20,424, was an advance, but it had limited scope and was more of an administrative impact, because in practice, aside from the transformation of the National Defense General Staff into the Joint General Staff and the replacement of the undersecretariats with services for Defense and Armed Forces, not much else occurred since fundamental aspects were not significantly affected, which are now being reviewed. The most important changes include the replacement of the “Copper Law” with a new funding scheme for strategic capabilities; internal control systems and external auditing processes; and the organization of reserved and administrative expenses, where the most public change is the modification of the ticket purchasing process, which had a significant impact on the Army.

There is also the update of the Defense policy, which shifts from being descriptive to being directive, with the consequences this should have on the freedom that institutions historically had in this matter. While there are still spaces for institutional voices, it will be the Executive’s voice that prevails, as we will begin to view the defense of Chile as a whole and from a joint perspective. Finally, the most important of all actions is the modification of the military career, which, rather than necessarily being modernizing, seeks to extend the careers of officers, non-commissioned officers, and sailors to avoid losing talents early. Additionally, as a positive externality of this, it aims to reduce pension costs, which, it goes without saying, have reached levels that are difficult to manage and politically justify in a country where, despite the good reasons that may exist to justify them, they exceed what an average Chilean receives upon retiring at the age of 65.

The modification of the military career is the most important because it directly affects those currently in service and, therefore, those who will have to implement and also bear the impacts of this significant package of modernization measures.

Change processes require intelligent management of the tensions involved. The idea is to reach the destination without the pressure cooker exploding, and for this reason, alongside the tension that is created, it is recommended to use containment tools and practice prudence, as otherwise, we may sink along the way. Care must be taken with how people are treated, as poor management of aspects related to them can generate unnecessary resistance and ultimately undermine the entire modernization effort.

Source: El Mercurio de Valparaíso